September 18, 2012

This week brings artichokes to our Mediterranean and vegetable selections and seeing as there’s only one (they are just soooooo pricey) dishes like artichokes a la Grecque (a lovely stew with coriander seeds and lemon) are out. The way to make them go furthest is to toss them in breadcrumbs and fry til golden. After that, with a spritz of lemon juice you’ve got a brilliant dish to pick on before dinner. A word of warning though, don’t break out your fanciest wine as artichokes tend to do funny things to the taste.

I wanted a dish that would feed 2 people for lunch so I used my fried artichokes as a basis for a salad. I served them with some cherry vine tomatoes from Marc Michel, a handful of those wrinkly Greek black olives and some Parmesan shavings and a very light lemony dressing. The crunch of the artichokes makes the salad more filling and we only used bread at the end to mop up the juices. Yum.

A large handful of dry breadcrumbs (those Japanese Panko ones are brilliant for this)

Enough lettuce leaves for 2 washed and dried

6-7 cherry vine tomatoes quartered

1 handful Parmesan shavings

A slightly smaller handful of black olive, stoned and torn (or left whole if you’re not up to that kind of thing)

For the dressing:

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

Maldon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

First of all put the dressing together so it’s ready for later. Mix the lemon juice and oil, adding a pinch of crushed Maldon and a good dose of black pepper then set aside.

To prepare artichokes I tend to use a range of implements – a large knife with a serrated blade, a small sharp peeling knife and a spoon. If you haven’t done this before basically with artichokes you only eat the heart which is located at the bottom centre of the flower so for this kind of dish the rest needs to be pared away.

Start by slicing off the stem and about 1 cm off the tough bottom of the artichoke. This will make the tough outer leaves easier to pull or cut off. Now cut off the top part of the artichokes (ie the tougher pointy part).

Pare back any other tough parts until you reach the heart.

Yes, it’s a lot of cutting back and what you’re left with seems paltry. I guess this explains why they never really caught on in a big way but all this work will be worth it – I promise!!

Using your fingers or a spoon scoop out and discard the fluffy stuff you find in the centre.

Slice the artichoke heart into pieces about 1/2 cm thick. Place the slices in a bowl of water then add the juice of half a lemon and a generous pinch of salt. This will stop the artichoke going brown. Leave the artichoke slices to sit for a few minutes while you toss the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, Parmesan and dressing together.

To finish off the salad, drain the artichokes and pat dry. Heat about an inch of vegetable oil in a pan and prepare the artichoke slices for frying by dipping them in flour then beaten egg then breadcrumbs. Add the artichokes to the oil when it’s hot but not smoking otherwise they’ll burn on the outside before they’re done inside. When golden brown, remove from the pan to some kitchen paper sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Sit on top of your salad with a couple of lemon wedges and serve immediately!!!!